


never far from mind

by sorrow_key



Category: Farseer Trilogy - Robin Hobb, Realm of the Elderlings - Robin Hobb
Genre: Bittersweet, Canon Compliant, Epistolary, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Mention of background Molly/Fitz but it's very minor, Missed Chances, Multi, Pining, Sappiness, Unresolved Romantic Tension, fitz-typical unrealised feelings, long distance romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-30
Updated: 2020-12-30
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:15:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 904
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28435236
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sorrow_key/pseuds/sorrow_key
Summary: A small collection of letters that were never sent.
Relationships: FitzChivalry Farseer/The Fool
Comments: 6
Kudos: 11
Collections: Winterfest - Rote Gift Exchange☆





	1. Letter from Lord Myeth to Holder Tom

**Author's Note:**

  * For [crownedrooster](https://archiveofourown.org/users/crownedrooster/gifts).



> Happy Winterfest! I hope you enjoy your gift, though I'm afraid that the physical version will likely be late.
> 
> If the images included in this don't show up on AO3 mobile, using browser or the link to the tumblr version (<https://whatevsbla.tumblr.com/post/639281794480553984/winterfest>) could help.  
> Since nothing about this except the pairing fits your prompts, I added another separate gift for you. That should also add up to an acceptable word count.
> 
> Happy new year!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A letter from Lord Myeth of Buckkeep, whose identity remains unknown, and Holder Tom of Withywoods, husband to Molly Nosegay Chandler of Withywoods.
> 
> It includes a short, unsigned note (presumably from Lord Myeth) and an unsigned card (presumably from Lord Golden, who appears to be a Jamaillian noble who resided in Buckkeep castle for a time and was forced to leave in disgrace. 
> 
> It remains unclear to whom the card was to be addressed, but it is in line with many speculations of the time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The post card shown here uses a batik design from Indonesia.

Transcription: This unmarked note was found in the former quarters of Lord Golden. Given his debt to you, I thought you should have it.

Do not fear this unmarked letter -it bears you no ill will. 

Watch instead the vibrant colors of the center, gather it in your hands and feel the softness of it. Such a novel thing, fabric inside paper, you must think. Knowing you, I fear this would be the only kind of cloth you'd appreciate, though I would like to see how this style would suit you.

I do hope you'd appreciate it, that your curiosity survived like a most stubborn tree. I'm sure you'd at least love to know where I found it and I would love to tell you, but that would be even more foolish than writing this. 

But it seems that once you don the mantle of a fool, you condemn yourself to wear it. For all talk of mantles and fate, I do hope you've found a place for yourself where you're as free from yours as you can be, that you're far away from where my path takes me. 

I wish you could have this present of me, at least, for it would be less selfish than finding you. 

Maybe one day, you will, though I should like to get something nicer for you until then. 

Until fate ties our paths again,

My Beloved

  
  



	2. Unknown author, Withywood Manor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A set of singed papers found in a hidden room within Withywoods Manor, author unknown. Some parts are scratched out and illegible, but overall, it is well-preserved.  
> It appears the author tried to burn the writing, but decided against it. Dated between the late reign of King Shrewd Farseer and the ascension of King Dutiful Farseer after the infamous Queen Kettricken's interim leadership.

Transcription:

Dear ~~Fool~~ ,

I do not even know how I'd begin to send these messages to you even if I wanted to. And I do want to talk to you, never doubt this, but there is a difference between talking to someone who can answer and someone who cannot. Especially now.

Then again, I am rarely as open with anyone as I am with you. I hope you know that. I hope you feel the same. Even if your honesty used to scare me even worse than your secrets, but I think you know that. It never stopped me from craving your company. 

I've gotten off track, as I am wont to do in my writing. ~~Patience~~ wouldn't be happy with it, but I like to imagine she'd at least appreciate that I am wasting paper I made myself. Or perhaps that would make it worse to her. I don't know. It's been too long since I talked to her, or to you. I like to imagine that you would appreciate this too - you always liked to make things with your own hands. That is one of the things I admire about you.

Sometimes I wish I had something you'd made so I could keep it as a secret proof that you and our time together was real. The past seems like a ghost sometimes and if I must be haunted, I'd rather it be you. But these are morbid thoughts. I did think of visiting that mountain friend of yours, for you left much with her. I never did ask what you thought of her, really, and it still makes me wonder. ~~Did you kiss~~

But it wouldn't feel right to keep something you had not given. 

At least you have my earring. I have been thinking much of gifts of late, for it's the season for it. Do you know that Buckkeep celebrates Winterfest right now? The countryside follows a few days later, but it is too remote for a feast. I almost missed them this year as well, these days of joy amidst the winter's cold. I wouldn't have thought it possible as a boy, but what is one missed year among many?

Feasts mean little when you have no one to celebrate with and ~~Nighteyes~~ our mutual wild friend doesn't see much sense in these traditions. 

Is Winterfest even known where you are or do they have other customs, other causes to celebrate? I have been to places that never even knew winter, not even the slightest chill. Do you even remember it or was it nothing but a foreign, strange custom to you? I am sorry, that was not fair.

Even if I am talking to an empty page, I do not write this to make accusations, though here I can admit that I want to, at times.

But this was to be a happy letter - and a short one, but it is easy to lose myself in everything I want to tell you. 

Mere words could never be enough, never do justice to all you are to me. I want to give them to you anyway, even if they are nothing but the shallow confessions from an aged lonely man.

I hope that whatever you are doing, wherever you have gone, you have something to celebrate and that you aren't alone. 

I would never touch Elfbark again if I could know you are safe, but I never could find you that way. Perhaps it is good that it doesn't put me to the test, but I would rather have something firmer than wishing and hope.

It never did me much good, but perhaps it will have a better use for you. It's all I can give you, so that makes it my other present for you, I suppose.

Happy Winterfest, ~~my Fool~~


	3. A much popular postcard motive

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A postcard motive that grew very popular in particular thanks to the Old Blood community, originally created by an artist named Gillam in honor of his mother's cat Marmalade.

Transcription:

A drawing of two orange cats with speech bubbles. A bolded text above them says: 

WHEN IN DOUBT

The first speech bubble adds: Pet the cat.

The second one reads: MURDER

**Author's Note:**

> "What we had is gone forever,  
> yet a piece of us remains;  
> for those we love, forget us never,  
> in the days of gloom and rains.  
> Memories will last a lifetime,  
> the good we spread, that will not die;  
> and too the poetry we rhyme,  
> will not die with our last sigh."  
> \- Some Things Remain, dave lessard


End file.
